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I've started painting again after a long break from 40K, and my first model after some testing was a C'tan shard since I really love that model.

Would love some constructive feedback on my work so far

Sorry about the quality of the images. Only had access to the camera on my mobile phone at the time I took the images.

Not really sure what to give feedback on. Your basing looks great. From what I can tell in the picture it looks like you painted him a cream color followed by a brown wash and hit the eyes with some green.

 darefsky wrote:
Not really sure what to give feedback on. Your basing looks great. From what I can tell in the picture it looks like you painted him a cream color followed by a brown wash and hit the eyes with some green.

Specific things I would like to get feedback on includes:

* Any specific part of the model that you think look strange or ackward.
* Any specific things you think look good, and I should continue on other models.
* I struggeled a lot with the crystals on the base, but it got a lot better in the end when I made the contrasts a lot higher than my first attempt. Any thoughts of how to make the crystals look even more like real crystals?
* I tried to get a glowing green look in his eyes, but didn't want to overdo it. Does it look believable?

So basically: What works for you on this model, and what doesn't? Any ideas of what would improve this model if you could change whatever you want?

 darefsky wrote:
Not really sure what to give feedback on. Your basing looks great. From what I can tell in the picture it looks like you painted him a cream color followed by a brown wash and hit the eyes with some green.

Mirrors my thougths too, that and the modle really could have used some other colour scheme to be fair. I find cream/white colours a less than suitebal choice for such models, unless uplimeted by other colours that add a bit mroe dept to it all.

* Any specific part of the model that you think look strange or ackward.
-not particularly

* Any specific things you think look good, and I should continue on other models.
-The edge highlighting on the crystals is great. Bring that into the models themselves

* I struggeled a lot with the crystals on the base, but it got a lot better in the end when I made the contrasts a lot higher than my first attempt. Any thoughts of how to make the crystals look even more like real crystals?
- no keep doing these to the same standard (remember the 3' rule)

* I tried to get a glowing green look in his eyes, but didn't want to overdo it. Does it look believable?
-OSL is what your going for, it's much easier to pull off with an airbrush, you have to almost be overthr top to really make it look good. On this model the eyes just look green not so much glowing.

General recommendation? Spend as much effort on the model as you did on the base. You have talent I would tell you to add highlights up from the cream color on his skin to give it a better contrast and depth. I would also use a second color for his toga thing. The nice thing with that is you can't really go wrong with the color you choose.

Good luck.

I think you may want to wash the corners of the eyes so it isn't such a stark transition.
Personnally would have gone with a different color on the "Robe" but only so the skin of the C'tan stood out more, as it is, its very clean, so there isn't much to say. Good work

So it seems that one of my concerns is what you guys are seeing as well. The colors on the "robe" and the actual C'tan is to similar, so I should find another color to use for the robe.

Maybe I should also add a final highlight of pure white to the skin on the edges as well. He is quite highlighted as it is, but some of that has been washed away by the poor camera on my phone.

Thanks for all feedback guys

I noticed a few..... well lets say not so help full comments so I thought I would through some cents into the pot. You have a few issues going against you, your colour pallet alot of people pretend they are amazing painters because they have 900+ colours including inks glazes drys solids ect others can pull amazing stuff with 2-5 colours. So some advice you get will be completely usless unless you do as they have and spend alot more money on a wider range of colours."or are very very talanted and mixing"

So with that aside your problems that I see are how you see the model and how the camera does are 2 different things. If you see some pics with alot of unneeded fluff in the background "oblivious photoshoped" with lighting effect and that nonsense it is like a magician to help take your eyes off the problems. So they will never be 100% perfect "on camera" unless you join that bandwagon.

On some painting tips it would be your blending needs some work. You can see where the 2or3 different colours meet there is a very very rough line. You can do some easy things to help that glazes"which I find works well for a easy flat armour ie spacemarines" went blend or drybrush. If you can get use to drybrushing on a small scale you can get rid of the harsh colour transations.

Putting down a base followed by a lighter colour put on very sparingly followed by another all off no more then 2 shades off each other will help the model look alot more...alive. If you can not slightly see the base coat then either your paints to thick or you have to many layers. My iceberg slaughter brute started out dark blue and after 8 differnt colours worked to a whiteish.

You are missing a grabbing point, something that when you look at the model you look at right away. Humans look for things that don't belong a survival trait which you need to use. It's like the where is waldo book it is hard to see him because he is not meant to stand out but if the whole page was green and he was in his red you see him in 1 second. So pick a spot you want people to look at "with nurgle usually the guts" with him I would focus on his body/face. The body and cloth being the same colour "or very close" make it look like 1 piece rather then 2 so if you made him more visually striking with a gold or VERY bright colour he will stand out alot more, then bring the cloth to a much lighter colour will help this effect even more.


Last thing the inks people say there can never be to much ink, it is a lie or they didn't finish the thought. Ink is best used sparingly and if needed multiple layers or you get that mukky look, if you see it pooling just remove with your brush quickly before it leaves a rim.

Best of luck in the future endeavors

Pretty simple, yet effective. I think he would look nice in a ceramic painted necron army. I never knew that C'Tan smiled that much, and I even painted one myself. It actually gives him a "ahha gotcha sucker" look. Golden Daemon painted - no... A nice quality piece you can play with confidence - yes. My biggest criticism would be the color of the cloth, as he seems to meld too much into it as they are so close in color. Good work..

I think his skin looks great! I might give the cloth a few more washes to darken the color a bit, but please don't mess with the skin tone. You did WONDERS with the face. Easily this is the best face on the Deceiver I've ever seen. It REALLY pops.

The only thing that
Looks a little odd is that he looks like he's got a pedo smile...

OgreChubbs wrote:
I noticed a few..... well lets say not so help full comments so I thought I would through some cents into the pot. You have a few issues going against you, your colour pallet alot of people pretend they are amazing painters because they have 900+ colours including inks glazes drys solids ect others can pull amazing stuff with 2-5 colours. So some advice you get will be completely usless unless you do as they have and spend alot more money on a wider range of colours."or are very very talanted and mixing"

So with that aside your problems that I see are how you see the model and how the camera does are 2 different things. If you see some pics with alot of unneeded fluff in the background "oblivious photoshoped" with lighting effect and that nonsense it is like a magician to help take your eyes off the problems. So they will never be 100% perfect "on camera" unless you join that bandwagon.

On some painting tips it would be your blending needs some work. You can see where the 2or3 different colours meet there is a very very rough line. You can do some easy things to help that glazes"which I find works well for a easy flat armour ie spacemarines" went blend or drybrush. If you can get use to drybrushing on a small scale you can get rid of the harsh colour transations.

Putting down a base followed by a lighter colour put on very sparingly followed by another all off no more then 2 shades off each other will help the model look alot more...alive. If you can not slightly see the base coat then either your paints to thick or you have to many layers. My iceberg slaughter brute started out dark blue and after 8 differnt colours worked to a whiteish.

You are missing a grabbing point, something that when you look at the model you look at right away. Humans look for things that don't belong a survival trait which you need to use. It's like the where is waldo book it is hard to see him because he is not meant to stand out but if the whole page was green and he was in his red you see him in 1 second. So pick a spot you want people to look at "with nurgle usually the guts" with him I would focus on his body/face. The body and cloth being the same colour "or very close" make it look like 1 piece rather then 2 so if you made him more visually striking with a gold or VERY bright colour he will stand out alot more, then bring the cloth to a much lighter colour will help this effect even more.


Last thing the inks people say there can never be to much ink, it is a lie or they didn't finish the thought. Ink is best used sparingly and if needed multiple layers or you get that mukky look, if you see it pooling just remove with your brush quickly before it leaves a rim.

Best of luck in the future endeavors

Lots of good points here. For starters, yes I think blending is something I need to practice more, so good to see that what I feel needs more work is the same things that others are. Thanks for good and thorough feedback!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Camarodragon wrote:
Pretty simple, yet effective. I think he would look nice in a ceramic painted necron army. I never knew that C'Tan smiled that much, and I even painted one myself. It actually gives him a "ahha gotcha sucker" look. Golden Daemon painted - no... A nice quality piece you can play with confidence - yes. My biggest criticism would be the color of the cloth, as he seems to meld too much into it as they are so close in color. Good work..

 Jimsolo wrote:
I think his skin looks great! I might give the cloth a few more washes to darken the color a bit, but please don't mess with the skin tone. You did WONDERS with the face. Easily this is the best face on the Deceiver I've ever seen. It REALLY pops.

Two more comments regarding the cloth. That seals it I guess. I have to redo the clothing.

Nice to hear that you like the skin color. I like that as well, and my plan when I started was to give him a kind of ivory or alabaster look.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Well done.